They Fear For Safety, Property Coopersburg Home In High Accident Area

"There's just no courtesy on the road today," said Robert Oister while surveying the latest damage to his Coopersburg home as tractor-trailers rumbled by the row house.

Yesterday, for the second time in six weeks, the property at the corner of Route 309 and State Street had been hit by a passing motorist.

Like any other family, Oister's wife and daughters navigate through the yard and down the sidewalk next to the house every day.

But unlike the average family living near a busy street, Oister's wife Joan and his 12-year-old daughter Bobbie Jo are legally blind.

Damage this time was not extensive - a block retaining wall built to protect the garage from such an accident was damaged, and a stop sign at Route 309 and Carpenter Street was knocked over by an errant pickup truck.

But other incidents have left the garage demolished and a stockade fence in pieces.

An electric sign warning motorists of the nearby Coopersburg School is twisted at its base and damaged fence posts are piled in the Oister yard - reminders of a June 24 incident when a car hit the sign, plowed through the fence, sending fragments flying into a neighbor's yard; bounced back into the street and finally came to rest in the front yard.

And, Oister said, "Back in 1980, I had a big truck come through and demolish the garage."

Joan said for the past two years she has asked the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to install a guard rail along the sidewalk bordering Route 309 but has gotten no results.

Although she has only 5-percent of her vision, she walks the sidewalk and crosses the highway at Station Avenue twice a day on the way to her husband's business to the rear of S. Main Street.

"But," she said, "my main concern is school children and the senior citizens that walk by here. All I want is a simple explanation why they can't put up a guard rail. They put up a guard rail to protect weeds."

Daughter Brenda, 14, added, "It's like the Indy 500 during the day."

When Joan crosses the highway she said, "I rely on the driver's good judgement. I can see enough to get around most of the time. But I can't see the (traffic) light, so I wait for traffic to stop."

Bobbie Jo, who has 10-percent vision, usually has someone help her cross the street. Joan said, "I'm half afraid to send BJ to the store, but I can't keep her bottled up in the house."

Bobbie Jo was the subject of a Morning Call story in December that detailed her association with the Feinbloom Clinic in Philadelphia.

The clinic designed a special pair of glasses for Bobbie Jo that use a telescope on one lens to correct her vision to 90 percent of normal. Both she and her mother have a rare optic disease called optic atrophy, a hereditary condition that affects fewer than 1 percent of the population.

Through years of road repairs and settling, the roadway and sidewalk have become flush. And Oister contends drivers pull up on the sidewalk and park. He said while he was painting the new fence a driver in a Volkswagen pulled up on the sidewalk and parked until Oister asked him, "How would you like it if I climbed up on the roof of your car?"

Oister also contends he has never been reimbursed for any of the damages to his property.

Coopersburg police concur the stretch of Route 309 between the Laneco store and Charles Street is plagued by accidents.

A pin-marked map at police headquarters showed 15 reportable accidents in the area from January to May, 10 of them involving injuries. Police "couldn't tell offhand how many unreportable accidents there were." Statistics for June and July were unavailable.

According to police, yesterday's accident was unreportable, but the driver of the truck, Mark J. Feiertag of Coopersburg, will be cited for failure to drive at a safe speed.

Feiertag was reportedly traveling in the left of two northbound lanes, was unable to stop when traffic ahead slowed, and swerved into Oister's retaining wall.